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| Saturday, 21 February 2004 |
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Sports | |
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Going by the numbers How petty minded can certain sports officials get? The venue was the Taj Hotel where the Australian team led by Ricky Ponting was holding their first press conference of their current tour of Sri Lanka. Everything was ready for the event, but lo and behold there were some seats on the podium that were empty which led to some delay in the conference getting started. Only a few, mostly Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) officials amongst the large gathering of people knew exactly what was going on behind the scenes. The delay was over a row on even and odd numbers. The person who assumes to be the SLC's senior vice president in the absence of the president, had kicked up a row over seating accommodations. He was unhappy that the seats at the head table were even in numbers and wanted it changed to an odd number so that he would occupy the imaginary centre of the table position. He was also dissatisfied that the microphone was placed in front of the other SLC vice president who was his junior and not where he was supposed to sit. This official we reliably understand threatened to walk out of the press conference which he is supposed to have chaired and it was after a lot of coaxing by some SLC officials that he returned to his seat. The incident did not end there. There was a further humorous touch to add to this entertainment. This official took it upon himself to address the gathering. He struggled to express himself in the language of the Queen much to the embarrassment and amusement of the entire local and international audience who were in fits of laughter at what was being dished out to them. The general talk in cricket circles is that this official has no cricketing background and many questions how he got elected into the position he presently holds, a place he doesn't deserve. Is he trying to be the cock of the walk in the absence of the elected president during this interim period much to the hilarity of all and sundry? He seems to be living in a galaxy of his own. People feel a sense of pity for him but by his present behaviour these very same people are feeling more sorry for the game of cricket to have such a joker amidst them. What we here from the grapevine is that this official also has ambitions of becoming the next president of SLC. Some people in cricket circles having heard of this decision had suddenly developed an attack of Parkinson's disease. God help Sri Lanka cricket. All ten wickets There has been readers' response to schoolboy cricketers taking all ten wickets in an innings following the comments made in this column regarding Peterite Sohan Boralessa's feat of taking ten wickets against Wesley. Reader Wimal de Silva from Nugegoda writes: "There were several schoolboys cricketers who captured all ten wickets in an innings previously. The most notable and memorable performance was that of the late Somasiri Ambawatte of Mahinda College, Galle who in the 'Big Match' against Richmond College in 1953 scored a century and went on to capture all ten wickets of the Richmond first innings. When Richmond followed on he got another five wickets to have a match bag of 15 wickets and a century. That was then a world record. "It was subsequently broken by Lionel Fernando of St. Benedict's College who scored a magnificent double century and captured all ten wickets in the first innings of St. Anne's College, Kurunegala. Fernando was a great cricketer who later represented Sri Lanka in unofficial test matches. There was also another schoolboy from Mahinda College, the late Susiripala Hewa, who in the early 1940s got all ten wickets for only 15 runs in an innings against Rahula College, Matara. "I wish Sohan Boralessa, who I believe is also a Southerner a very bright future in his career as a cricketer." Another reader Mervyn Fernando from Negombo writes that Lionel Fernando's feat which was performed at St. Benedict's College grounds, Kotahena in 1959 was a world record because apart from scoring an unbeaten 204 he also performed the hat-trick on his way to capturing all ten wickets in an innings for 24 runs. Fernando was captaining his school at that time. "Those of us who were fortunate enough to witness this astonishing feat will remember it for a long time. Most remarkably he scored 100 runs out of the score of 204 and captured ten wickets including the hat-trick in one session between lunch and tea. This feat is recorded in Wisden Cricketers Almanack regarded as the cricketers' 'Bible'." Rooting out chuckers The fact that the International Cricket Council (ICC) has an expert three-member panel in operation in Bangladesh for the under 19 World Cup to identify any bowlers of the next generation of international cricketers who have flawed actions is most welcome. The appointment of such a committee comprising former Test cricketers Bob Woolmer and Waqar Younis and Prof. Bruce Elliott, a human movement specialist, shows how seriously the international ruling body for cricket is addressing this issue which has reached major proportions with allegations that it is targeting or protecting a particular player with a flawed bowling action. The ICC has totally denied this allegation coming from former Test cricketers and said that more recently they had taken the lead by compelling each country to develop its own system to identify players with flawed actions and to correct any problems well before the players reach the international level. These systems have not previously existed in all countries. The ICC is also in the process of researching into the bowling actions of spinners so that they have a clear fact based understanding of what actually takes place in a spinner rather than solely rely on the naked eye or on TV replays which have proven to be deceptive. This new research is expected to take place later this year. The whole issue of chucking is a highly charged one. Although the ICC says that it is committed to dealing with this issue openly and directly and to examine the best process to address any concerns, one cannot blame people like former Australian captain Bob Simpson from expressing his own views about this issue that has dragged on for too long. |
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